An estate agent has suggested on social media that people who buy a Greggs breakfast each day could save well over £8,000 towards a deposit if they walked on instead.
The comment has provoked a furious response from some critics.
DM & Co Homes, based in the West Midlands, has said in a TikTok video that buying a bakery breakfast every day would cost £8,400 over five years - enough for a five per cent deposit on a £175,000 home.
The video uses text as well as images to say that a £5 daily breakfast means: “That’s £35 a week … that’s £140 a month … that’s £1,680 a year. Three years later that’s £5,040 … five years later that’s £8,400.”
There have been critical comments from some social media users, who claimed the suggestions were condescending - one post read: "This is literally boomer mentality! Buying a sausage roll is not going to stop you from saving a deposit. Pointless video.”
However, not everyone disagreed with the video. One post read: "I agree with the premise that a little change can add up but this kind of advice frustrates more than helps. The housing market is broken. The housing market is broken and telling people not to buy a coffee isn't going to change that.”
Estate Agent Today has asked DM & Co Homes for its response to the dispute. A company spokeswoman has already told local media: "We've done a few videos like that and people love them. It really makes first time buyers realise how much they can save.
"Some users don't really understand the point of the video or have the motivation to save. They don't realise how much these things are and that it will add up over time. People are always going to make comments but I don't take notice.
"House prices are only going up and because TikTok is aimed at a young audience it's good to make them aware of how they can save. If you stop spending money on these things you can save and get yourself on the property ladder."
Last month Location, Location, Location star Kirstie Allsopp suggested that more first time buyers may have to give up expensive coffees, Netflix and their gym subscriptions if they wanted to purchase a home - or even consider moving to a cheaper part of the country.
There was outrage on social media at the time, but Allsopp says her comments - originally made in The Times - were corrected by the newspaper and were not as critical of prospective buyers as some critics suggested.
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They have a point. If you want a house, you have to save a deposit. If you have to save a deposit, you have to economise. If you regularly have Greggs or Costa coffees, if you stop buying them then you’ll have more money to save. Do the same with all the other places you might “leak” money each month and you’ll save your deposit quicker. I’m not sure what the fuss is here.
That £5 saved on a Greggs breakfast - and I doubt many people are even spending that, and certainly not daily - is hardly going to make a difference, as it will still take many years of saving to make even the remote bit of difference. Plus in most parts of the country, the deposit required is so much higher.
What's more, if house prices were reasonable and in any way affordable, there wouldn't be the need to scrimp and save to this degree. I agree that buying a home takes some sacrifices, but it is patronising nonsense to suggest that a Greggs or Costa coffee is going to make much of a difference.
It's the same as those who call millennials smashed avocado on toast eating snowflakes, when in my experience middle-aged people are just as likely to eat smashed avo and more likely to be snowflakey (I hate that word) about the smallest of things.
@ Algarve Investor
This isn't the first time I've seen you get the hump at this sort of article. You really, REALLY need to learn basic maths, economics and human psychology, as well as taking notice what the people around you do, especially the ones that complain. You are contributing to the poisonous, and false, narrative that home ownership is unattainable. It's the single biggest reason that people never get started in the first place.
An alternative would be to check your regular outgoing payments each month (music and TV streaming etc). My kids did that recently and are now much better off each month. Problem is, they can now afford to go to Greggs for breakfast!
It isn't just about walking past Greggs, it's about having a disciplined attitude to save.
… and part of that disciplined attitude to save is understanding that the world does not owe them a house.
I don't think any young person or first-time buyer is saying that - more that house prices should in some way be reasonable and affordable, which hasn't been the case for a very long time.
@ Algarve Investor
Like I said.... economics. Go and read a book about the history of the UK property market. Property is more affordable, to more people than at pretty much any time in history.
I think it’s getting close to the point where it’s time to knock EstateAgentToday on the head. Too many of these pointless articles.
Cheerio.
The principle they are advising is sound so I am not sure what people are offended by. Yes it's a tough market place for first time buyers but if you want to buy right now that's that's market you have to work with. If you don't want to buy then don't- stay in your rented flat and enjoy it. Or stay at Mum and Dad's and enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it and want to buy a home then stop moaning at the people trying to help you and get on with doing what is necessary to get on the housing ladder. This will only apply to those with enough disposable income to be wasting money on Greg's breakfast not those on low incomes who struggle to save anything let alone enough for a breakfast out and about. Those are the people that need real support.
With the high cost of Energy, we all might have to skip by Greggs
It's nice to trigger the millennials from time to time. Swap out a sausage roll, for avocado toast, or latte for the same hysterical reposte.
Anyway I'm not giving up my 20 Lambert & Butler, 2 bottles of Blue Nun and a bag of chips each day for anyone.
Trying to appease the employers for constant requests for social
media posts may also have instigated this. Nothing that wrong with the post but with house prices rising I think the reality of the suggestion is much removed from its content.
All just a question of personal priorities.
This isn’t just about Greggs. It’s about not having the latest iPhone, nails done at £25 a time, leasing new cars, heavy drinking and clubbing at the weekend etc. The agent had a good point and many people just don’t want to hear it. Grow up, take responsibility, life is hard.
I love all of these comments made by mostly middle aged men. Who have that world view. Who look back to how things used to be.
Did you know that 5BN people on the planet are 39 years old or younger?
And only 2.9BN are 40 years plus.
With 2.3BN people - who are 20 to 39, those same people who 'go to nail bars' and have hedonistic life styles.
It is the young who actually are defining the world and its culture, and how commerce works. In the 1980's couples in their early twenties bought houses and had families, in 2022, first time buyers are often 38 years old, they fuel the economy in a very different way, a way that underpins everything.
Having the latest electronic consumables, partying heavily or just doing what you want to do, rather than sitting in 'the office' or on a production line, is not a teenage thing, it is a lifestyle thing.
Separately, many of those who commented would I feel be also lucky to have been in the vanguard of the hugest price inflation for property in the last two or three decades. Yes interest rates were high, but with hundreds of thousands of equity in property tucked under your belt, it is easy to say like any chiding parent - you need to tighten your belt and get on the property ladder.
Well maybe the 'yoof' have more sense - spending more time on themselves, realising that life is finite - what is the point of getting to your sixties to enjoy it ... much better to sample its rich luxuries when you are younger and more healthy.
And all this nonsense about Greggs, the reality is that the bank of mum and dad was the biggest provider of deposits for the 406,000 first time buyers in 2021, and will probably be the same this year, so maybe all that 'equity' has some value after all.
I hear everything you’ve said here Andrew and respect your opinion . I also appreciate the world changes and how it works in different ways as it used to. However, the bottom line is this “lifestyle thing” has to be financed. If someone can afford it with their hard earned cash then go for it. If not and they are able bodied .. stop being a taker. People can do what they want , until they want if they have the cash but too many blame society when they can’t buy a home of their own, when clearly they could.
PS … when I started out interest rates were 15% and had 4 jobs. It nearly broke me … but here I am.
"Having the latest electronic consumables, partying heavily or just doing what you want to do, rather than sitting in 'the office' or on a production line, is not a teenage thing, it is a lifestyle thing."
How very sad.
What a great life typing on a screen all day rather than going out and meeting mates or doing some sport. I love a beer and a party but many of my generation do not. They eat out rather then cook, they buy every new phone or laptop. Then they whine that they cannot afford to buy a home which I have done.
I am 32 I do not spend my life on a screen all day. I meet mates for a drink and to do sport. I go out with my partner and kid. I have no social media we have less than zero interest n other peoples holiday or what they are eating today. Or keeping in touch with people who are not good friends.
"they fuel the economy in a very different way, a way that underpins everything."
All it does is make profit for huge conglomerate organisations. If they are happy to contribute to that they are welcome but then they should not whinge and whine about not being able to afford a house.
"but with hundreds of thousands of equity in property tucked under your belt,"
You get equity by buying a house and paying the mortgage down not by buying another pc or phone or gadget.
"Well maybe the 'yoof' have more sense - spending more time on themselves, realising that life is finite - what is the point of getting to your sixties to enjoy it ... much better to sample its rich luxuries when you are younger and more healthy."
Fine if that is how people think. I do not my priority when I started work was to look after myself and provide a home for myself and my future wife and family.
If they have different priorities that is fine but they should not whinge about not being able to afford a house if they choose to spend their money on other things.
he fact is I work with a couple of people of my age in my own company in their early 30s who rent. Every day for years they have been buying a couple of coffees at Costa, lunch at a local deli. they are probably spending £10 a day. Me? I boil a kettle in the kitchen and bring in a sandwich.
They do 3-4 city breaks a year plus a holiday.
I am 2 other people who work with me in the late 20's and the older people I work with own our own homes.
We do not go to costa every day, we do not have every new gadget that adds nothing to our lives, we do not go on endless city break and holidays, we do not eat our 4-5 times a week.
We take 1 holiday as we are overpaying on the mortgage and chucking money into our pensions.
So, as just another middle-aged man, your advice is to just enjoy life, forget buying and be an eternal renter. Not sure who you 'influence', but the next generation need to avoid your advice at all costs.
I agree 100%.
This is a right laugh. The guy has done a promotion video with a tongue in cheek narrative and we are going off on some way to analyse it.
Im certainly not going to rise to a justification or mission statement.
Good lad rock on mate
any person who calls themselves an "influencer" is by definition an idiot who is up their own arse.
Oh Jan Byers if only I could influence you ... wait a minute I have influenced you to repost my original post in forensic detail, does this mean you are warming to me after all this time.
A heads up, influencer marketing is worth £30Bn annually, and DM & Co Homes are utilising 'influence' by getting their thought leadership out to their audience. Which has resulted in almost 4,000 reads here alone, plus of course their original traction on social media.
As to being an idiot and up myself - you are probably absolutely right, I will ask Zara, but having a digital audience of over 100,000 people does mean that you can leverage huge financial benefits for stakeholders. Get complex messages out there for debate, and inform, educate and move agendas along, on a global scale.
In fact PROPTECH-PR now has more global clients than in the UK. Do we fly out to over 30 of those clients based in Israel, America, Australia, etc no - did we pitch to them originally in their native countries, No. How then did they ever hear of us - OUR INFLUENCE. Every single one of them came to us - as we 'influenced them' a very different way to traditional marketing.
Bordering on arrogance I’m afraid PT
Yaaawn...
What find odd in all of the posts I've seen of yours across various social media, you never name your clients - why is that?
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